Some of the great events in Durants life were a result his singular talent and control, while others were the result of actions taken by his adversaries and competitors.

Durant recognized the importance of the valve-in-head engine of the Buick and he bought the company.

Durant and his wife then moved to New York, where they lived in relative obscurity thanks to the financial generosity of four of his long-time associates, but not GM.

www.cbc.ca /newsinreview/sept98/flint/icon.htm (1457 words)

William C. Durant(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)

William Crapo "Billy" Durant (December 8, 1861 â“ March 18, 1947) was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry, creating the system of multi-brand holding companies with different lines of cars.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he was the grandson of Michigan governor, Henry H. Crapo, William was a high school dropout, yet had become a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles by 1890, based in Flint, Michigan.

In the 1920s, Durant became a major "player" on Wall Street and on Black Tuesday joined with members of the Rockefeller family and other financial giants to buy large quantities of stocks in order to demonstrate to the public their confidence in the stock market.

WilliamDurant, better known as Billy Durant, at an early auto outing before the organization of General Motors.

William Crapo "Billy" Durant (December 8, 1861–March 18, 1947) was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry, the founder of General Motors who created the system of multi-brand holding companies with different lines of cars.

William was a high school dropout, yet had become a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles by 1890, based in Flint, Michigan.

WilliamC. Durant's name is prominently recalled in Michigan historical markers in front of the old Durant-Dort Carriage Co. headquarters (restored a few years ago as a National Historic Landmark) and at Buick Motor Div.

Durant was a giant in his accomplishments, his failures, his sense of the dramatic, his ability to attract intensely loyal followers and an almost equal number of critics and enemies.

Durant had a stroke in Flint in 1942 and died in his New York apartment in 1947.

William Crapo Durant (1861-1947) wrote this letter while en route to Michigan from California, where he had established a contract to promote his pet project, the Flint car.

One of the automotive industry's pioneers, Durant had dreamed of motorcars while building buggies and wagons for his Durant-Dort Carriage Company (founded in1886, it was the country's largest carriage company by 1890).

After founding Durant Motors the following year, Durant produced a number of cars that were targeted to different markets, including the PY, known as the "wonder car" because of its success, particularly in France.

Durant told Briscoe he couldn't come to Chicago, he was too busy; but he would have breakfast with him in the morning if Briscoe could catch the evening train to Flint.

Durant's business record (like that of all the other strong-willed auto industry leaders of the day) indicates a temperament that would never willingly cough up the kind of money and operational control that was the J.P. Morgan and Company policy in underwriting mergers.

Briscoe and Durant led the discussion, and their differing views remain a remarkably accurate summary of the debate over centralized control versus operational independence that is still conducted within large companies and among potential partners every day.

Durant might have been a moderately successful auto executive who retired from a solidly capitalized Buick with a gold watch and happy memories if he hadnt been such a gambler.

Madsen tells Durants story with an emphasis on boardroom politics, which is appropriate because GMs founder was the first CEO to come from the finance, rather than the engineering, side of the company.

Durant sat down to write his autobiography when he was in his 80s and deposed from GM for the second time.

The vaudevillians couldn't decide whether "get out and get under" or "get a horse" represented the utmost in derision as rubes seated on roadside fence rails tossed their taunts at the city slickers who had begun invading the countryside in their snorting devil wagons.

J. Morgan and Co. with a boast that the time would come "when half a million automobiles a year will be running on the roads of this country." Curiously, this raised the hackles of Morgan partner George W. Perkins, the apostle of the "good trust," who promptly left the room.

Durant did not preside at the birth of the automobile.

local.aaca.org /siraaca/CARGIANTS_.htm (1619 words)

[No title](Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)

The three-minute 64-year-old recording on a five-inch aluminum disc was discovered in the relative's desk by WilliamDurant Radebaugh of Battle Creek, Mich. It displays Durant's enthusiasm and sense of humor.

Durant was a leader in the carriage industry when he took over the tiny Buick Motor Co. in 1904.

Durant lost control of GM to bankers in 1910 but regained control after founding Chevrolet Motor Co. with former Buick race driver Louis Chevrolet in 1911.

In the first decade of the century, Durant stepped in to take control of the struggling Buick Motor Co. and within a few years had built it into the top-selling brand, then used it as the foundation for General Motors.

Meanwhile, in Durants absence at GM, Charles Nash was named president, and Walter P. Chrysler became head of Buick in 1912.

Durants strength was in organizing and buying companies; he had trouble running them.

www.flintjournal.com /20thcentury/1910/1910durant.html (1458 words)

Amazon.com: The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant Made General Motors: Books: Axel Madsen(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)

The Durant that Madsen reveals is a business visionary truly worth getting to know, the "Great Gatsby of carmaking" who understood the big picture but lacked the personal patience and managerial skills necessary for long-term success.

What set Durant apart from other would-be car czars was that, long before others caught on, he understood that the business was headed toward consolidation, and that to survive he would need access to big money.

Working through a new company he formed, Chevrolet, as well as with allies, Durant was able to win control of GM from the bankers in an unexpected coup.

The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant Made General Motors, by Axel Madsen(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)

Long before Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, and Bill Gates, there was WilliamC. Durant (1861—1947), the flamboyant businessman who made deals at warp speed to build General Motors and the automotive industry.

Thriving on the art of the deal, Durant was buying companies at the rate of one every thirty days at the height of his career.

Then, gambling on a run on GM stock, Durant was forced into a buyout, which unseated him from GM, leaving him without the financial wherewithal to ever succeed again.

The Kettering University/GMI Alumni Foundation Collection of Industrial History was established in 1974 with the acquisition of the William Crapo Durant Collection.

Durant was the founder of General Motors Corporation.

The collection seeks to collect and preserve manuscripts, photographs, printed materials and miscellaneous memorabilia that relate to the development and growth of the automobile and related industries.

Founded in 1908 by WilliamC. Durant, General Motors grew to be a leader in the automobile industry by acquiring Buick, Oldsmobile, Oakland (later named Pontiac), Cadillac, Chevrolet, and several lesser known automobile manufacturers and parts suppliers.

Between 1908 and 1923, General Motors was headquartered in a number of rented offices, first in New York and then in Detroit.

Sloan, who became president after Durant was ousted in 1921, created a decentralized management plan that became a model for much of the rest of American industry.

Durant, the bowtie emblem was first seen by her husband in an illustrated Virginia newspaper, while they were vacationing in Hot Springs, Virginia around 1912.

Durant was quoted as recalling, “We were in a suite reading the papers, and he saw this design and said, ‘I think this would be a very good emblem for the Chevrolet’ ” She did not explain how the newspaper used the emblem.